Rep. Walsh wrong on school funding issue

The board members and administration of the Livonia Public Schools feel it is imperative that we respond to Rep. Walsh’s recent guest editorial regarding school funding.

We want to recognize Rep. Walsh for his support for our district and on education issues over the years.

But clearly, based on the information in the editorial, there is little understanding of how detrimental the current funding model has been to local districts or acknowledgment of what districts have done to proactively attempt to maintain programs. Rep. Walsh is correct that the state may be spending more than it has in the past, but let’s also be clear on how that translates to local public school districts and their budgets. The bottom line is that regardless of what individual pieces of the state budget looks like, local districts are dealing with less revenue and higher mandated costs as they work to provide programs.

Simply put, this is what an increase in state funds has produced at the local level for school districts — less revenue and higher mandated costs. The Citizen’s Research Council, a non-partisan public policy research group, has completed several good studies on the impact of declining enrollment, per pupil funding and retirement costs on local school districts to support our position.

Rep. Walsh also suggests that school districts “live within their means.” This is what LPS has reduced or eliminated over the past five years:

This is above the $28 million of reductions since 2001-02. We have eliminated over 500 jobs since that time. Past and present boards have made tough decisions to deal with enrollment loss. We have closed schools; created new programs; implemented employee concessions, numerous cooperative agreements with neighboring districts; energy programs and other cost saving measures; limited schools of choice, etc. The bottom line: if we lose one student in each of our classrooms across the district, we lose $6.4 million, yet cannot reduce costs in the same manner. With only the loss of one child per classroom, we can’t reduce staff, we still need a principal, we still must keep the lights on and run water. Again, the Citizen’s Research Council outlines this impact on districts.

Rep. Walsh also implies we have a cost/benefit structure for employees that needs to be addressed. As it relates to this issue, LPS has done the following:

■ Teaching staff have not seen an increase in their salary schedule for over five years

■ Support staff have taken 10 percent pay cuts

■ Employees are paying up to $4,000 per person for health insurance

■ Employees have taken unpaid furlough days

■ New health care plans have been negotiated saving millions

■ Employees are paying up to an additional 7 percent of their pay into the retirement system.

Bottom line, concessions have been made, and employee take home pay is now lower.

Rep. Walsh promotes that our school district received an added $50 per student in funding this year. This $50 represents an increase of well below 1 percent, which means our previous year increase of $5 per student is an increase of well less than one-tenth of one percent. This has not covered our required increase in state retirement costs, let alone the impact of enrollment decline on our school budget. The state legislature can and must do better for its children.

We have no issue with Rep. Walsh’s position that a student in a lower funded district is just as deserving as a student in our district. When Proposal A passed in 1994, one of the goals was to reduce the funding gap between school districts. If his position is that, as he describes, a Plymouth-Canton student is as deserving as a Livonia student (they receive $858 per student less than our district), than it would seem that a LPS student is just as deserving as a Farmington student (who receive $1,849 more than an LPS student). Yet the current school funding system has given LPS and Farmington the same increases and decreases for years.

The fact is that the school funding system is broken. School systems are in deficit all over the state, schools are cutting services, and in some communities school districts are disappearing. This is not just our observation or opinion. Citizens across Michigan clearly agree the school funding system is broken. The Observer just wrote in its editorial against last week’s Wayne County funding proposal that Wayne County taxpayers shouldn’t have to make up for the state’s lack of funding for schools. And poll after poll given just this year identifies funding for education as the highest priority among Michigan citizens by significant margins.

What is more disappointing is that school leaders presented to legislators a very reasonable school budget for this year, called the Classroom and Kids Proposal. This proposal was based on the Governor’s budget as its starting point. This proposal received support by educators from all corners of the state. Yet, we were left with something much less than that, and with $100 million left on the table set aside for a future payment into the retirement system not due until 2020. This is one of 10 payments the state has been making each year, but for some reason, at the last minute, money needed to be set aside this year for 2020. It could have funded the school proposal, or at least reduced current retirement costs putting more money in the classroom. End result, this budget put us and many other districts in the position, once again, of having less revenue than the year before and increased retirement cost, creating the need to reduce their budget. It did not need to happen.

Rep. Walsh is a leader, well respected in our community and has a long history of civic service. We respect him, but he is wrong on the school funding issue. We will continue to push for resources to support the children in our district. For now, a supplemental improvement to the State School Aid budget for school districts is reasonable for consideration by the legislature this fall. In the long term, school districts across the state have asked for a funding study to identify just what it costs to reasonably educate a child. This is a reasonable request so we can really begin to address Michigan’s school funding system.